


heather

by undernightlight



Series: Gays in Space [39]
Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: M/M, Pining, Rimmer loves Lister, Unrequited Love, but Lister loves Kochanski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29145864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undernightlight/pseuds/undernightlight
Summary: Rimmer pines for Lister, while Lister only has eyes for Kochanski.
Relationships: Dave Lister/Arnold Rimmer
Series: Gays in Space [39]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/951465
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	heather

He felt rather hopeless, watching Lister fawn after Kochanski day in and day out. He imagined this was what it was supposed to feel like when you were a teenager and falling in love, but he never had that back then, so he could only imagine. If he was honest, if he had gone through this sort of thing in his teenage years, he and his melodramatic sensibility probably wouldn’t have survived.

It was excruciatingly painful in a way he’d never experienced before, and this was coming from someone who had a landmine go off in his sandpit and been regularly stretched on a rack as a child. No, this was a different kind of pain, and he hated it. He’d rather be back on the rack.

Lister was so hopelessly lusting after Kristine Kochanski. It was completely hopeless, everyone could see that but Lister it seemed, which of course only made it all the more painful. If only Lister could see what was in front of him.

Or maybe it was better that Lister was blind to his feelings because god he wasn’t sure he could get through that kind of teasing - it took him long enough to admit it all to himself, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with it all externally too.

It was stupid of course because they weren’t even friends so how could they be anything more? Rimmer wasn’t sure, but it didn’t seem like his heart minded much because he’d gone straight from hate to love, completely bypassing the friendship part that normally had to come between. And honestly, he still hated Lister, for all the same things he hated Lister before, but everything was made just a bit - a lot - more complicated by the fact tat he loved him too.

And Lister was in love with Kochanski.

He would listen to Lister talk about how wonderful she was, how pretty her smile was and how much her accent just made him melt. Rimmer wanted to hate her, he really did, but she happened to be one of the very, very few people aboard the ship that didn’t completely despise him. Maybe that was because she didn’t know him well enough - which meant knowing him at all - or because she genuinely just liked everyone, but she often smiled at him when they occasionally crossed paths in the corridors. He wanted to hate her, but he couldn’t.

When he looked at her, of course Lister could never like him like that, and he felt rather stupid for those moments he hoped that maybe they couldn’t been something more. It was utterly hopeless of course, and he was aware of that, but that didn’t mean his heart didn’t still want it.


End file.
